MH370: So many questions, so many theories

It is inconceivable that something as big as a jetliner could disappear from the face of the Earth just like that.

It is even more inconceivable that a Boeing 777 could vanish in a modern world where everyone and everything is digitally connected, where surveillance is the norm and the US National Security Agency has the technology to track everyone all the time.

Since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and the international search effort that ensued, we have come to learn that the world is not as small as we had thought. Things can still get lost.

But in a world of Foursquare and social media, such a vacuum cannot simply be accepted. There has got to be something weird and out of the ordinary happening, right?

The clairvoyant theory

With Occam's Razor discarded, people in general began seeing all kinds of signs and portents, even in something as unconnected to the disappearance as a 2012 Pitbull-Shakira song, Get It Started. The lyrics No Ali/No freezer/But for now, off to Malaysia were perceived to have been prophetic, seeing as "Mr Ali" was the nickname given by the British media to one of the Iranian passengers with a fake passport.

The 9/11 theory

Two Middle Eastern passengers with fake travel documents onboard MH370 certainly got Islamophobic and racist conclusions going - not least the cart going beyond the horse with the idea that the plane was hijacked, landed in Pakistan, and the Taliban were loading bombs onto it to be flown into Israel for a 9/11-type attack.

This is no thanks to retired US Air Force Lt Gen Thomas McInerney who brought up the whole Pakistan theory on the American TV show Hannity.

The Lignet website, run by former US intelligence personnel, had this to say: "Israel is taking the possibility of a terrorist attack seriously by mobilising air defences and giving extra scrutiny to approaching civilian aircraft, according to the Times of Israel ... a Boeing 777 requires a lengthy, 7,500-foot runway, and Pakistan has many of them ..."

And McInerney chimed in: "When the US Navy quits their search, their ship search, they must know something in the Indian Ocean. When the Israeli defence forces, when they increase their defence alert, they must know something."

And media mogul Rupert Murdoch also had his say on Twitter with tweets on "jihadists", "Muslim extre­mist threat", "northern Pakistan" and "Bin Laden" to fuel a world already on edge.

The cloaking device theory

American TV and radio host Glenn Beck highlighted that there were 20 employees of Texas-based Freescale Semiconductor on board. It seemed that there was a cloaking device involved, one created by the company and coveted by China. Things were starting to take on a techno-thriller angle.

But then the theory came from "citizen news website" Beforeitsnews, which ran the piece with a reference to a Fox News report on stealth technology to give it some credence.

And some of Beforeitsnews' top articles include Michelle Obama is a man and Aliens are hiding in the Vatican.

The fearsome weapon theory

But more ominous is another "news" website called Natural News which stated that there is something even more sinister going on.

"The frightening part about all this is not that we will find the debris of Flight 370; but rather that we won't," Mike Adams wrote on Natural News.

"If we never find the debris, it means some entirely new, mysterious and powerful force is at work on our planet which can pluck airplanes out of the sky without leaving behind even a shred of evidence. If there does exist a weapon with such capabilities, whoever controls it already has the ability to dominate all of Earth's nations with a fearsome military weapon of unimaginable power."

'The pilot did it' theory

If these tabloid-style websites were peddling far-fetched conspiracies, other respectable publications offered their more palatable theories or speculations.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that counter-terrorism officials in the United States were investigating whether the plane was "intentionally diverted" and "with the intention of using it later for another purpose."

The New York Times also reported US officials as saying the flight-path diversion was "most likely programmed by someone in the plane's cockpit who was knowledgeable about airplane systems."

This comes as investigations are underway on the flight crew, most notably pilot Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah who was found to have a flight simulator in his home.

While this fuels further speculation, especially when five airports found on the simulator included those in Sri Lanka and southern India, Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein stated that "the passengers, cabin crew and pilots remain innocent until proven otherwise."

The fanatic theory

Tenuous links have been made of Capt Zaharie with the Opposition, largely due to a photograph of the pilot wearing a "Democracy is dead" T-shirt.

A slight twist came recently with a theory put forth by Canadian pilot Chris Goodfellow, which was picked up and published by Wired magazine. Goodfellow stated that the plane had probably caught fire and Capt Zaharie was only doing the right thing, diverting the plane back towards Langkawi to try and land it there.

The hero theory

Although Goodfellow's take on the missing plane has since been negated by others, owing to the zig-zagging course that the plane took and his insistence that everyone on board had passed out due to smoke, his "startlingly simple theory" has one thing others have not - it puts the pilot and his crew in a positive light.

Goodfellow wrote: "It serves no purpose to malign pilots who well may have been in a struggle to save this aircraft from a fire or other serious mechanical issues. Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a hero struggling with an impossible situation trying to get that plane to Langkawi."

The Royal Malaysian Navy corvette KD Terengganu and a U.S. Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney conduct a coordinated air and sea search for a missing Malaysian Airlines jet in the Gulf of Thailand

Crew members from the Royal Malaysian Air Force prepare a Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft for a Search and Rescue operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in the Straits of Malacca

A crew member from the Royal Malaysian Air Force uses binoculars onboard a Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft during a Search and Rescue operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in the Straits of Malacca

Ground workers push a Vietnam Coast Guard Casa aircraft after a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane over the southern sea, at a military airport in Ho Chi Minh city on March 13, 2014.

Indonesian Air Force personnel aboard an Indonesian Air Force military surveillance aircraft over the Malacca Strait, a sea passageway between Indonesia and Malaysia, while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane.

Students light candles as they hold placards in solidarity with families of the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane during a candle light vigil at the university belt in Manila on March 13, 2014.

At least 43 ships and 39 aircraft from Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, China, the US, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand have joined the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER. India, Japan and Brunei joined the search operations on March 12.

Republic of Singapore Navy personnel participating in the search and rescue operations, approximately 380 nautical miles (700 kms) north of Singapore, in the South China Sea for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Singapore Navy personnel participating in the search and rescue operations, approximately 380 nautical miles (700 kms) north of Singapore, in the South China Sea for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Philippine Air Force crew aboard a C-130 plane scour the seas while flying over the western Philippines in the South China Sea as they help search efforts for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

A Philippine Air Force crew member aboard a C-130 plane scours the seas while flying over the western Philippines in the South China Sea as they help search efforts for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

A C-130 Hercules transport plane belonging to Japan's Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) is seen at the ASDF base in Naha on Japan's southern island of Okinawa, before departing to help in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 plane

An Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency boat patrols the Malacca Strait off Aceh province located in the area of northern Sumatra island in search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The search for a missing Malaysian jet swung northwest towards the Andaman Sea on March 12, far from its intended flight path, exposing Malaysia to mounting criticism that its response was in disarray.

At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft from Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, China, the US, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand have joined the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER. On March 12, India announced that it is joining the search operations as well. No sign of the plane has been spotted so far.

Family members of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vote to set a deadline for the company to answer their requests, including providing solatium without additional conditions, at a hotel in Beijing

Surti Dahlianese, niece of Dutch national, Surti Dahlia, a passenger on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 looks at identity documents of her missing aunt Surti Dahlia while other Indonesian relatives watch television to monitor the latest developments on the missing aircraft from their residence in Medan city, located in Sumatra island.

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Kenneth Noble (2ndR) speaks next to the Police Services Executive Director Jean-Michel Louboutin (R), the Director of Operational Police Support Michel O'Connell (L) and the Chief of staff Roraima Andriani (2ndL) during a press conference where they display an image of two suspects from the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370

Malaysia's Police Chief, Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar told a news conference, that one of the men (L) was identified as a 19-year-old Iranian Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad while the identity of the other was being investigated.

An aerial view of an oil spill is seen from a Vietnamese Air Force aircraft in the search area for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane, 250km from Vietnam and 190km from Malaysia, in this handout photo from Thanh Nien Newpaper taken on March 8, 2014.

Fuad Sharuji, VP Operation Control, said during the last reported contact at 35,000 feet, around two hours from KLIA, there was no call from the crew or notification from the tower that they were having any kind of difficulties.

"We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370 which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am earlier this morning bound for Beijing," MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya (above) said in a statement.

An airport worker writes on a sign board advising relatives of passengers of a missing Malaysia Airlines to go to a nearby hotel for information on the flight, at Beijing International Airport in Beijing on March 8, 2014

Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) Director General Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman (L) speaks at a news conference at a hotel near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang March 9, 2014.

Deputy commander of Vietnam Air Force Do Minh Tuan (seated), looks at a map on a TV screen during a news conference about their mission to find missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Phu Quoc Airport on Phu Quoc Island

Deputy commander of Vietnam Air Force Do Minh Tuan points to a map during a news conference after their mission to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Phu Quoc Airport on Phu Quoc Island

Crew members looking outside windows from a Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft working during a search and rescue (SAR) operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane over the Strait of Malacca.